Freedom in "Beloved"

page 141
When Mr. Gardner agreed to the arrangements with Halle, and when Halle looked like it meant more to him that she go free than anything in the world, she let herself be taken 'cross the river. Of the two hard things -- standing on her feet til she dropped or leaving her last and probably only child -- she chose the hard thing that made him happy, and never put to him the question she put to herself: What for? What does a sixty-odd-year-old slavewoman who walks like a three-legged dog need freedom for? And when she stepped foot on free ground she could not believe that Halle, who had never drawn one free breath, knew that there was nothing like it in this world. It scared her.

Questions:
1) Why does Baby Suggs refer to herself as a slavewoman and not a woman?
2) Why does Halle know what freedom feels like but Baby Suggs doesn't know until the second she is free?

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